I find it unbelievable that the prosecutor’s office cannot find charges in the recent shooting of a 7-year-old boy in Aurora. It is certainly negligent to leave a 12-year-old unsupervised in a house. It is even more negligent to have a child in a house where there is a handgun in a jacket pocket with ammunition readily available.

I am a gun owner. All of my firearms are stored in a locked gun safe. The fact that the gun used in this shooting was in a jacket pocket tells me the owner does not know how to safely store a gun.

Why are so many people carrying guns around? Why do they think guns are the way to solve problems? There are sensible gun regulations that do not infringe on the Second Amendment, yet can make the world a safer place. We need legislators who are not afraid of the NRA to enact sensible gun laws and we need a prosecutor who will charge people when they are negligent with regard to owning firearms.

John Stiles, Centennial

This letter was published in the July 28 edition.

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I have read with increasing astonishment the comments from those opposed to the use of organs taken from aborted fetuses for medical research. As the mother of a stillborn child who might have lived if more had been known about her condition, I support all research that might save a mother the anguish I suffered. And for this support, letter-writer Randy Fabrizio tells me I will burn in hell forever, at the direction of a supposedly loving and compassionate God. How appalling that any Christian would think this.

Abortion is always a tragedy, although sometimes a necessary one, and I salute Planned Parenthood for finding a way that some good may come out of it.

Sara Gadeken, Evergreen

This letter was published in the July 28 edition.

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While reforming Social Security, let us also talk about funding it adequately by removing the wage cap on withholdings. Besides providing the much-needed funding, it would equalize the percentage of tax to total wages between middle- and upper-income earners.

To those legislators who signed Grover Norquist’s no-new-tax pledge, I would say that I have never seen Norquist’s name on any ballot.

Bob Green, Westminster

This letter was published in the July 28 edition.

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Finally, a story in the daily paper worth reading and smiling about. Your story about Air Force cadet Brett Hagen asking Taylor Swift to the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Ring Dance next May was great. I downloaded the video and watched with co-workers today. Fun stuff.

Good luck, Cadet Hagen. I hope she says yes.

Aaron Skoff, Arvada

This letter was published in the July 28 edition.

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Craig Cleve, left, marches with members of the Chicago Teachers Union as they picket outside City Hall to protest $200 million in planned public schools cuts on July 2, one day after the district paid a $634 million pension bill officials said it couldn’t afford. (Christian K. Lee, Associated Press)

What I found most interesting about this article was the absence of a debate. The article featured two entrepreneurs (code for pro-business) writing about the deficits in the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association (PERA) pension fund. Interestingly enough, there was a letter to the editor titled “PERA was a promise in exchange for lesser salaries” the same day, which spoke the truth.

We need to reverse the negative trend on workers’ (private and public) retirement programs, and start investing in a system that provides security for all who earn it. There used to be a time when the vast majority of companies (private sector) provided a pension to their workers. Boeing recently decided to eliminate pensions for all new employees. The CEO recently retired, and will receive $3.9 million in annual pension payments for 15 years. Hmm.

“Business interests” now want to eliminate public-sector pensions. When will it end and America wake up to the war on our economic livelihood?

Mike Erickson, Highlands Ranch

This letter was published in the July 27 edition.

First, I am not a PERA member, but am a seasoned investor. With this background, I found the criticisms of Henry Duboff and John J. Huggins flawed and disingenuous. My main criticism is their claim that PERA’s 7.5 percent assumed rate of return on assets is unrealistic

Like most large pension groups, PERA invests in diverse assets. Much of PERA’s portfolio is in common stocks, many of which have returned in far excess of the 7.5 percent target (e.g. Google, Apple). This is true of the stocks of many household names (e.g. Disney, Walgreen’s). True, some of PERA’s other holdings may return less (e.g., bonds), but achieving at least 7.5 percent over the long term is really not that difficult. I have actually achieved this myself with my own investments — and I lack PERA’s bargaining power over brokerage and other investment charges due to its size. Indeed, PERA has achieved 9 percent over the long term.

For the experts they claim to be, Messrs. Dubroff and Huggins should do their research before spouting off their predisposed solutions.

Howard Buchalter, Englewood

This letter was published in the July 27 edition.

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The Colorado legislature has an annual pet peeve with the location of the state fair because it does not make money. However, the Denver Zoo, Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, etc., are subsidized by taxpayers. Pueblo is an export city. It brings money into the state. It’s steel and rails made it possible to reach the mining communities in the last two centuries but gave the town a black eye for being “gritty.” The recently completed History Colorado Center and Colorado Judicial Center in Denver were built with tax dollars. Spend the money to keep the fair where it has been for nearly 140 years but spend a few extra bucks to promote it so the folks in Northern Colorado will see what a gem it is.

Jerry Smith, Denver

This letter was published in the July 27 edition.

Economics dictates that the state fair must move. I believe the best new location would be in the Castle Rock area. Conveniently located off Interstate 25 between Denver and Colorado Springs, there should be large areas available. This should also be considered as a stop for the proposed Front Range Commuter Rail. There may even be enough commonality here with the National Western Stock Show to share amenities at Castle Rock. Throw in Six Flags Elitch Gardens and now you have something!

How much traffic and road repair must we endure just to keep everything within Denver city limits?

Frank Umbriaco, Lakewood

This letter was published in the July 27 edition.

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Sandy Phillips, whose daughter Jessica Ghawi was killed in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, carries a T-shirt memorializing the 12 people killed in the attack, outside the Arapahoe County District Court in July 14 (Brennan Linsley, The Associated Press)

The Aurora theater spectacle (trial) appears to be more of a lifetime of guaranteed employment for the defense lawyers than a true trial. They will drag it out as long as possible and then start the interminable appeals process. Every decision the judge has turned them down on will be appealed to every level possible in the court system.

This case is not that hard. Did James Holmes know right from wrong? Yes. Did James Holmes know that killing and maiming defenseless, innocent people is/was wrong? Yes. Did James Holmes, with malice and forethought, shoot into a crowded theater with the purpose in mind of killing and maiming innocent, defenseless people? Yes!

It’s easy to argue that anyone who kills another is “not all there.” But the test of knowing right from wrong is pretty simple and straightforward.

Mark Rawlins, Westminster

This letter was published in the July 26 edition.

Is there anybody else who was appalled that an ambitious politician/prosecutor wasted millions of taxpayer dollars to prove that James Holmes was guilty when Holmes had offered to plead guilty? There are those who argue that submitting the families, victims and jury members to revisiting this gruesome crime will provide “closure.” There is nothing in our legal system that requires the law to provide closure, because it can’t. Nothing that happens to Holmes will provide healing for those people. Better that we spent our tax dollars on providing the survivors and families with crisis and grief counseling. The day after Holmes is executed, nobody is going to wake up happier, except maybe the prosecutor who established himself as a hot-shot cowboy who gets the bad guy.

A. Lynn Buschhoff, Denver

This letter was published in the July 26 edition.

We knew District Attorney George Brauchler was running for something when he refused the plea deal: life in prison, death penalty off the table. What are the chances that James Holmes will ever be executed if he gets the death penalty? Some of us are still waiting for Nathan Dunlap to be executed. The result is going to be the same, whether Holmes gets the death penalty or not. But a death penalty case sure looks good on a résumé when you’re running for office.

Brauchler’s use of social media during the trial in spite of the judge’s order not to certainly gives us an indication of how well Brauchler listens. Or maybe he’s just too (self) important to follow the rules.

Linda Barclay, Denver

This letter was published in the July 26 edition.

Beyond the very real toll an additional month’s trial (the sentencing phase) will exact on the survivors and victims’ relatives, there is the specter that no one has yet put a name to.

That being the Hickenlooper Effect.

A jury returns a death penalty verdict, all the appeals are exhausted and a progressive governor stays the execution, denying judicial process and closure to those who were savagely damaged by the perpetrator’s act. Gov. John Hickenlooper did it (in the Nathan Dunlap case), and others of his ilk will follow in his footsteps, making jury verdicts irrelevant and cementing governmental fiat as a trump to judicial process.

It’s a slippery slope, folks, and one that isn’t limited to legal decisions unpopular to a single, politically powerful individual. It can morph into a sort of eminent domain used to remove any law or decision distasteful to those in power.

Mike Dixon, Longmont

This letter was published in the July 26 edition.

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Olivia Friedman’s opinion piece on first-time voters is a wake-up call for Colorado school districts to teach all high school seniors the ins and outs of the bedrock of our democracy: voting. And each high school should have handouts for each high school senior, stating: “You can register to vote or change your address at www.govotecolorado.com, or you can go to your county clerk’s election division and complete and return the voter registration form there. Do it as soon as you turn 18. Be a proud Colorado voter and supporter of democracy.”

As for evaluating candidate positions, it is a good idea first to look up their party’s platform and then the platform of the candidate, and then determine which party and candidate best fits your political beliefs.

Gwyn Green, Golden

This letter was published in the July 26 edition.

Other children of the ’60s likely found Olivia Friedman’s Colorado Voices piece as exhilarating as I did. What we were handed back then as regular high school curricula — American history, geography, civics, political science — assumed that an informed citizen was something to be, something the country needed. Apparently Olivia agrees, but she didn’t get the full voter’s manual that goes with democracy. Instead she’s left sorting out America like unpacking and assembling Ikea furniture for the first time.

Blowing off voting as being duped by power brokers and their shills (a self-fulfilling prophecy), as so many of my 20- and 30-something friends do, isn’t so much apathy as anxious defensiveness. A cynicism researcher at Boston College, Dr. Philip Mirvis, explains that cynics’ dim views “protect them from what they imagine to be the slings and arrows of hustlers and higher-ups.” Only informed voting can do that when it comes to government.

Don’t leave it to polarized “grown-ups,” Olivia, even if DIY is the only way!

Jack Unruh, Denver

This letter was published in the July 26 edition.

How ironic. Olivia Friedman recognizes the importance of being prepared to vote and suggests our public education shoud help meet that need.

Back in the dark ages, didn’t we have a high school class called civics that did just that?

Trent Winegar, Evergreen

This letter was published in the July 26 edition.

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People stroll through the shops and stores, July 15, along Washington Avenue in Downtown Golden. Golden’s downtown has bloomed into a destination with shopping and dining options which was helped from the revitalization caused by the Golden Urban Renewal Authority. (Brent Lewis, The Denver Post)

We appreciated John Aguilar’s article in last Sunday’s Post about urban renewal. As mentioned in the article, “reformers” of urban renewal are focused on different aspects of the tool. From our standpoint, a commonality among all reformers is a desire for greater say, public participation and accountability for all levels of government whose tax dollars support the project.

Urban renewal is an extraordinarily powerful tool. It is a tool counties and special districts believe should be used in truly blighted circumstances that cannot thrive without taxpayer support.

We believe that last year’s legislative efforts went a long way in enhancing public participation and governmental accountability in this important tool. By granting locally elected county, special district and school officials a participatory role on urban renewal boards and the ability to determine the level of financial support they can invest while still meeting the service expectations of residents, urban renewal projects are positioned to garner greater public support and community buy-in going forward.

John (Chip) Taylor, Denver
Ann Terry, Denver

John (Chip) Taylor is executive director of Colorado Counties, Inc. Ann Terry is executive director of the Special District Association of Colorado.

This letter was published in the July 26 edition.

There are dozens of cities and towns throughout the state which have established urban renewal authorities, and have done so over a long period of time with a great deal of public involvement and participation. Just this month, the Pueblo City Council established an urban renewal area for a part of the city whose citizens actively asked for help. At the council meeting, citizens gave the council a round of applause. Imagine that, solving a problem for a group of citizens using the tool of urban renewal. It seems to me that in spite of the headline, it is indeed a law that has not only stood the test of time, but remains a very good fit for communities throughout this state.

Sam Mamet, Denver

The writer is executive director of the Colorado Municipal League.

This letter was published in the July 26 edition.

Your article on urban renewal described tax increment financing (TIF) as “additional revenues from future development at a site used to pay for the installation of roads and utilities at the outset.”

This description perpetuates misconceptions about how TIF works. All property taxes in the TIF district in excess of their levels prior to development are diverted from their intended use — schools, libraries, roads, fire protection, etc. — to the development authority, often for 25 years or more.

The resulting shortfall in services can result in future tax increases, paid not just by those in the renewal district, but by all county taxpayers.

If these urban renewal districts were limited to areas of true “blight,” they would be far less controversial. But they are often used as pure subsidies to attract more desirable development.

Enough! The legislature should act to prevent misuse of this deceptive tax scheme.

Tom Atkins, Golden

This letter was published in the July 26 edition.

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Ben Salmon was sent to prison for refusing to fight World War I on religious grounds. Now a group of Catholic peace activists is calling on the church to elevate him to sainthood. (Photo provided by Journal of the Catholic Peace Fellowship)

Thank you for your story about my dad, Ben J. Salmon. I was a little girl when my father died in Chicago. Upon dismissal from jail, he was compelled to find work and safely live away from Denver, where he was so hated. His poor physical condition was largely the result of months of forced feeding in federal prison, where a ceramic tube was shoved down his esophagus several times daily, weakening his health and resulting in an early death at 42.

Over the decades since I first learned the story of how my father refused to train to kill, I have found it difficult to believe that his act of conscience to not take part in training to kill would make him undesirable to the people of Denver. I hope the Catholic Diocese of Denver will recognize the goodness in my father’s decision in 1918 to refuse military service. I support the movement to beatify my father and hope other good people of Denver will do the same.

Sister Elizabeth Salmon, Maryknoll, N.Y.

This letter was published in the July 26 edition.

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Guidelines: The Post welcomes letters up to 150 words on topics of general interest. Letters must include full name, home address, day and evening phone numbers, and may be edited for length, grammar and accuracy.

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